DARTMOUTH: Father found passion for kids, hoop dreams

DARTMOUTH -- Basketball is Steve Burgo's passion. Keeping kids focused on life is his mission.

For the past 11 years, about 120 teenagers from across SouthCoast have been drawn each summer to Mr. Burgo's basketball court in his backyard on Bakerville Road to play ball.

Under lights and far removed from today's urban violence, the 54-year-old former Sears manager and local basketball star has provided teens with a safe place on hot summer nights to play basketball.

The only requirements are a love of the game, a pair of sneakers and a willingness to follow his rules about proper conduct.

For his unswerving devotion to SouthCoast youth, Mr. Burgo has been selected as The Standard-Times' 2005 Man of the Year for Dartmouth.

Nominations for the award came from the community and members of the newspaper staff. Recipients were selected by a newsroom committee.

"It's all about the kids," he said. "It's about basketball, but it's a life experience. It's an education."

His efforts have earned him universal admiration in the community.

"...Mr. Burgo has been a teacher, mentor, and a positive influence on the youth of this area," said Charles Lally of Dartmouth, one of the people who nominated Mr. Burgo for The Standard-Times' award. "He has been responsible for guiding many unsure boys and girls to stay in school, be respectful to others, and literally turn their lives around."

"He goes above and beyond for the tireless advancement of kids," said Dr. Steve Russell, superintendent of schools in Dartmouth. "If there's a way to get it done, Steve will do it."

Michael J. Gagne, the town's executive administrator, said Mr. Burgo possesses "a dogged determination" to see something through to the end and refuses to accept no for an answer.

Next year the Burgo Basketball Association is expected to reach new heights when it moves from his backyard to its new facility off Slocum Road, where he will accommodate a total of 1,200 players, ranging in age from 8 to adult.

Some of his dreams of a multi-sports complex will be realized next spring when three of the basketball courts will be ready.

His goal is to eventually have five outdoor basketball courts, three indoor courts, two tennis courts, two sand volleyball courts, a playground and a walking track on the 12-acre site that is being leased from the town for $1 a year.

But Mr. Burgo, who has been building the facility from donations, has been slowed by a never-ending series of pitfalls.

He explained that donations haven't been as forthcoming as he thought and some instrumental volunteers have passed away.

"It has been tough. It's like pulling teeth from a lion who is eating a steak," he said. "We've had so many obstacles. People have said to me, 'Why don't you give up?' I thought this would be an easy proposition."

Although nowhere near finished, the complex already represents $1.5 million between donations and in-kind services.

Mr. Burgo said the idea for the league and the complex stem from a violent incident in 1994 when one of his sons and friends were confronted by a group of kids carrying machetes while playing basketball in the city's South End.

It was eye-opener about the world for Mr. Burgo, who had always felt safe playing basketball as a teen and a young man in the 1970s on the courts of Buttonwood Park, New Bedford.